5. Will I lose any of my email?

No. We will migrate all of your email in most circumstances. We do encourage you to do some basic cleanup to make the transmission simpler, but everything will be moved over. (NOTE sometimes not all mail or folders makes the transition successfully. We will keep your old mailboxes intact for a while in case there are messages that need to be moved manually.)

6. Am I limited in how much email I can store on Google Mail?

Yes, but the limit is very large by email standards. Currently users are allotted 7.5 Gigabytes of mail. If you are a student this is a tremendous increase over your 150 megabyte limit under the old system. If you are a staff/faculty you'll notice you now have a limit, whereas before there was none under the previous system.

7. Will I still be able to use my mail program (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc)

Yes. The new system allows IMAP and POP connections just like ours does now. You will need some settings changes for it to work properly, but it all work the same way once you've made the switch. Additionally to realize the full set of features and administrative functions you will need to use the wumail.willamette.edu web interface.

8. Will I still be able to use Webmail?

No, the Gmail interface will replace Webmail. You will still have access to your email on the web, just not with the old Webmail interface. We will keep Webmail active during the transition so you can view old messages, but after that you will need to use the new (and much more feature rich) system that Google Apps for Education provides.

9. Do I have to convert to Google Apps for Education? What if i don't want to switch?

All of our mail is migrating to the new system. There is no option to stay connected to our old mail servers once the transition is complete.

For the most part you will continue to be able to access email any way you choose (via the web, using a client such as Thunderbird, Outlook, or Mac Mail), so you may not notice much difference in your email experience.

10. I already have a Google/Gmail account, how is this different?

Willamette University will have a separate instantiation of the Google Apps products. For one: there are no advertisements in Google Apps for education. Also Willamette may not implement every new feature or App at the same time the consumer side does, so there is a chance a feature you have on your home Gmail account might not appear right away in the Willamette University's setting for Google Apps.